Turkish jets bombed the Kurdish-controlled city of Afrin in northern Syria on Saturday, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to expand Turkey’s military border operations against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The raids, which the Turks dubbed ‘Operation Olive Branch’, came after a week of threats by the Turkish government, promising to clear the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from Afrin and its surrounding countryside.
The Kurdish group has been the US’s key Syrian ally in the war on the Islamic State group.
The attacks could also complicate Turkey’s push to improve ties with Russia.
Turkish jets bombed the Kurdish-controlled city of Afrin in northern Syria on Saturday (pictured)
From the Turkish border jets were seen bombing positions in the direction of Afrin
The raids, which the Turks dubbed ‘Operation Olive Branch’, came after a week of threats by the Turkish government, promising to clear the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from Afrin and its surrounding countryside
Moscow will demand in the United Nations that Turkey halt the military operation, RIA news reported, citing a member of the Russian parliament’s security committee.
From the Turkish border jets were seen bombing positions in the direction of Afrin, as a convoy of armed pick-up trucks and buses believed to be carrying Syrian opposition fighters travelled along the border.
Turkey says the YPG – a group it considers a terrorist organization – is an extension of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group that it is fighting inside its own borders, and it has found common cause with Syrian opposition groups who view the YPG as a counter-revolutionary force in Syria’s multi-sided civil war.
‘We are carrying out this operation from land and air,’ Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told broadcaster NTV. He said the attacks were being carried out to target the Syrian-Kurdish YPG militia and that no civilians had been hurt.
A Turkey-backed rebel group in Syria, the Free Syrian Army, was also providing assistance to the Turkish military’s operation in Afrin, a senior Turkish official said.
Rojhat Roj, a YPG spokesman, confirmed the strikes, yet he said ten civilians were wounded, three seriously.
He added the warplanes pounded parts of Afrin, while there were skirmishes with Turkish forces and their rebel allies at the edge of Afrin.
A Turkey-backed rebel group in Syria, the Free Syrian Army (pictured), was also providing assistance to the Turkish military’s operation in Afrin, a senior Turkish official said
The air strikes were accompanied by waves of artillery strikes on the Afrin region
The Turkish military said its operation in Afrin was to provide safety for Turkey’s border and to ‘eliminate terrorists’
Hevi Mustafa, a top member of the civilian administration that governs Afrin, said people were holed up in shelters and several wounded people had arrived in hospitals.
The air strikes were accompanied by waves of artillery strikes on the Afrin region.
Turkish officials have said the operation is likely to continue toward Manbij.
The YPG’s growing strength across a swath of northern Syria alarmed Ankara, which fears the creation of an independent Kurdish state on its southern border. Syrian Kurdish leaders say they seek autonomy as part of Syria, not secession.
The Turkish military said its operation in Afrin was to provide safety for Turkey’s border and to ‘eliminate terrorists… and save friends and brothers, the people of the region, from their cruelty.’
‘We will destroy the terror corridor gradually as we did in Jarabulus and Al-Bab operations, starting from the west,’ Turkey’s Erdogan said, referring to previous operations in northern Syria designed to push out Islamic State and check the YPG’s advance.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the strikes on Afrin marked the start of a campaign to ‘eliminate the PYD and PKK and Daesh elements in Afrin’.
Earlier on Saturday, the military said it hit shelters and hideouts used by the YPG and other Kurdish fighters, saying Kurdish militants had fired on Turkish positions inside Turkey.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inspected a military honour guard before addressing his supporters in Usak, western Turkey. The President has promised to expand Turkey’s military border operations against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG)
The Kurdish group has been the US’s key Syrian ally in the war on the Islamic State group
But the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces – which the YPG spearheads – accused Turkey of using cross-border shelling as a false pretext to launch an offensive in Syria.
Differences over Syria policy have further complicated Turkey’s already difficult relationship with NATO ally the United States. Washington has backed the YPG, seeing it as an effective partner in the fight against Islamic State.
A US State Department official on Friday said military intervention by Turkey in Syria would undermine regional stability and would not help protect Turkey’s border security.
Instead, the United States has called on Turkey to focus on the fight against Islamic State. Turkey’s capital Ankara accuses Washington of using one terrorist group to fight another in Syria.
And turkish leaders were infuriated at an announcement made by the US military six days ago that it was going to create a 30,000-strong border force with the Kurdish fighters to secure northern Syria.
Days later, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that the US would maintain a military presence with the Kurds for the foreseeable future.
Differences over Syria policy have further complicated Turkey’s already difficult relationship with NATO ally the United States. Washington has backed the YPG, seeing it as an effective partner in the fight against Islamic State
Syrian fighters attend their graduation ceremony near Syria’s northeastern city of Hasakeh on January 20, 2018, at the end of a US-led training programme aimed at forming a security force to patrol territory captured from the Islamic State group along the country’s northern border
Rojhat Roj, a YPG spokesman, confirmed the strikes, yet he said ten civilians were wounded, three seriously. Pictured: An injured PYD/PKK terrorist is seen at a hospital after Turkish jets destroyed observation posts
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed the operation with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by phone on Sunday after the US diplomat requested a conversation, Turkish officials said. They did not provide further details.
Any ground operation would entail considerable military and political risk for Turkey’s capital Ankara.
Russia was keeping military observers in Afrin and lately firmed up its ties with the YPG, while Syria’s government in Damascus said it would shoot down any Turkish jets on raids in the country.
The YPG is estimated to have between 8,000 and 10,000 fighters in Afrin.
Turkey could also face blowback from the Kurdish insurgency within its own borders.
A ground offensive or continued shelling would exacerbate the poor humanitarian situation in Afrin, which is now home to at least 800,000 civilians, including many who arrived fleeing the fighting in other parts of Syria.
The Russian Defense Ministry said, meanwhile, that it was pulling back troops that had been deployed near Afrin, two days after Turkey’s military and intelligence briefs travelled to Moscow to discuss the planned operation.
It said the group of observers was being relocated to another area. It was not immediately clear how many troops were affected by the move.